By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

Sunday’s visit to Tehran of the Iraqi interim prime minister and the talks of his high-level delegation with Iran’s new president and cabinet members resulted in some important bilateral agreements between two countries which throughout history have rarely been viewed as separate lands despite the plots of their common enemies to try to drive a wedge between them.
Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi summed up this unique relationship when he told his guest Mustafa
al-Kadhimi: “The deep bonds between Tehran and Baghdad stem from the beliefs and hearts of two nations. Despite the wishes of the enemies, the level of relations between Iran and Iraq will develop day by day.”
Among the agreements reached was the waiving of the visa for Iranian pilgrims visiting the holy sites in Iraq for the Arba’een or the annual 40th day ceremony for commemoration of the Great Sacrifice of the Immortal Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS).
The number of pilgrims has presently been set at 60,000 and is likely to be increased in the coming days in view of the efforts of the Iraqi health authorities in controlling the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic – genetically engineered by the American/Zionist enemies of humanity to plunge the world into biological catastrophe and among other things prevent the annual assembly in Karbala of twenty-million plus pilgrims.
Iran and Iraq also decided to speed up the laying of railway tracks, which when completed would not only ease the
trouble of land journeys to the holy sites, but would in the near future extend all the way up to Damascus in Syria, thereby facilitating trade as well.
A grand trunk road from holy Mashhad in northeastern Iran to the holy cities of Iraq has also been envisaged, and could be completed at the earliest in view of the valuable infrastructure already existing in the Islamic Republic that needs to be connected to Iraq and beyond.
Ties concerning cooperation in the fields of energy, health, ecology, trade, diplomacy, and culture were also discussed between the two sides which are part of the formidable Axis of Resistance extending all the way to Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.
In view of these positive developments, Iran and Iraq ought to take concrete steps for laying of joint oil and gas pipelines for transport of fuel to Syria and Lebanon that would defeat the illegal US sanctions on the two brotherly countries, and also save the Islamic Republic of Iran the trouble of sending fuel-laden ships through the Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal, to the Mediterranean ports of the Levant.
For his part, the Iraqi premier acknowledged yet once again Tehran’s timely military and other advisory help in defeating the grave US-Zionist-Saudi plot of turning Iraq into Takfiristan through macabrely murderous terrorists.
He said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran stood by the Iraqi people from the very beginning to fight Daesh terrorists, and the Iraqi people will always be grateful for this support.”
It is also worth noting that Iran fully supports the resolve of the Iraqi people to expel the American occupation forces, who have no right to stay even one single minute on Iraqi soil. These are the same criminals who were the prop
behind the repressive Ba’th minority rule of Saddam and had imposed the devastating 8-year war on the Islamic Republic in a futile bid to create bad blood between the two brotherly peoples.